As your website grows, the number of visitors visiting your site grows. The site becomes slow over period of time as WordPress has to compile the page every single time a new user tries to access it. This article will guide you on installing GTmetrix plugin and how it can help improve the speed of your WordPress website.
Prerequisites
- A domain name
- WordPress Admin Credentials
- GTmetrix plugin
Step 1:
Login to your WordPress admin dashboard as an administrator. On the Left hand side menu, you will see the Plugins Menu. Hover over the Plugins menu and click Add New.
In the Search Plugins, search for GTmetrix. Click install now to install the plugin and activate it.
Step 2:
Click on GTmetrix after it gets listed on the left menu. You will see it in the menu after it has been properly installed. To use this plugin, you need to register yourself and obtain an API key.
Step 3:
After adding the GTmetrix account email and API key, Save the Authentication part. Hover over the GTmetrix on the left menu to run the tests. Click on Test your front page now to run the tests. After the test is complete, you can view your scores.
Step 4:
After the test is complete, you get your score. A sample score looks like the screenshot below:
Click on Detailed Report to view the detailed result of your test.
Step 5:
The detailed report will show the performance of your site in details. It will show which areas can be optimized to make your site load faster.
From these recommendation, you will get an basic idea of what needs to be done to optimize your site to load faster.
Step 6:
You can use a plugin named W3 Total Cache to optimize your site based on the recommendations from GTmetrix. You can enable page cache, minify javascripts & redirects, enable browser cache, etc.
Conclusion:
By installing GTmetrix, you can know about your site performance and then optimize as per the recommendations.
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